Türkiye citizenship by investment 2026: the $400,000 real-estate route

Turkey grants citizenship to foreign investors under Article 12 of Law No. 5901 (Türk Vatandaşlığı Kanunu), through routes determined by the President. The competent authority for the citizenship application is the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Citizenship (Nüfus ve Vatandaşlık İşleri).

The outcome is a Turkish certificate of naturalisation, which is used to apply for a Turkish national identity card and passport. Citizenship is permanent and unconditional on continued investment: once granted, it does not lapse if you sell the property after the three-year holding period, stop living in Turkey, or acquire additional nationalities. Turkey permits dual and multiple nationalities, so you do not renounce your current citizenship. Whether your home country allows dual nationality is a separate question your own jurisdiction governs.

Citizenship extends to children born after the naturalisation date; a spouse is included in the same application.

The real estate route accounts for the large majority of Turkish citizenship by investment applications. The statutory requirement, attested by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, is: acquisition of property worth at least USD 400,000, with a title-deed restriction on resale recorded at the Turkish Land Registry (Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü) for a period of at least three years.

The $400,000 threshold applies to the combined value of the property or properties purchased, not to any single asset. An investor can buy one apartment, two smaller ones, or a commercial unit and a residential property, provided the official appraisal total reaches the threshold. Each title deed must individually carry the resale restriction annotation.

Valuation for threshold purposes uses an official appraisal report, not the negotiated purchase price. The appraisal must be completed before the application proceeds. Payment must pass through a Turkish bank and be converted from foreign currency into Turkish lira at the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) official rate on the conversion date; the bank issues a Foreign Currency Purchase Certificate (DAP) documenting that the exchange was done at the official rate. This certificate is a mandatory part of the application file.

Foreign buyers can purchase residential or commercial real estate in any Turkish region, with restrictions only for military zones and the statutory cap on total land area per foreign nationality.

The bank deposit route requires USD 500,000 deposited in a Turkish bank for at least three years, attested by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. Funds can be held in accounts denominated in US dollars, euros, sterling, or other currencies; they do not need to sit in Turkish lira. This route suits investors who prefer not to manage property but are comfortable with a three-year liquidity lock.

Government bonds and investment fund shares each require a USD 500,000 commitment held for three years. Government bonds are issued by the Treasury; investment fund shares must be in a real estate investment fund or venture capital investment fund regulated by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey. Both routes lead to the same citizenship timeline of approximately 90 days from attestation.

Job creation for at least 50 Turkish citizens qualifies under a separate track; the Ministry of Labour issues the Certificate of Conformity, and the process takes approximately six months rather than 90 days. The operational commitment required makes this route significantly more demanding than the investment routes.

The programme carries no nationality restriction, though applicants from some countries face more detailed source-of-funds review at the banking stage. The main applicant must be over 18 with a clean criminal record. A Turkish tax identification number (vergi kimlik numarası) is required before any transaction in Turkey, including opening a bank account.

Source-of-funds documentation is assessed by the Turkish bank before the purchase completes. The bank's AML review checks the origin of the funds, not just their amount. Cases where the investment funds move through multiple accounts, arrive as a transfer from a relative, or originate in a country with high AML scrutiny require more thorough file preparation at this stage.

The spouse and all children under 18 at the time of application obtain citizenship alongside the main applicant at no additional investment threshold. Children who turn 18 before the citizenship decision is issued are one of the more common case-management complications reported by our advisers; the child's age at the date of the Presidential decree, not the date of application, determines eligibility. Families with children approaching 18 should begin the process without delay.

Parents of the main applicant and adult children cannot obtain citizenship through the programme. They may apply for a Turkish residence permit if the main applicant sponsors them, but that is a separate administrative process and does not lead to citizenship.

The three-year restriction is a statutory requirement, not a recommendation. The resale ban is entered as a formal annotation in the Turkish Land Registry on the day of purchase. Selling, gifting, or transferring title to the property before three years from that entry date constitutes a breach of the investment condition. This can result in cancellation of the citizenship granted under the programme.

After three years, the investor is free to sell to any buyer, transfer by gift, or retain the asset. Citizenship is not affected by the subsequent sale. The property can be rented during the holding period; the restriction applies only to transfer of title, not to the use or income generated from the property.

Clients ask frequently whether the three-year holding period interacts with the five-year capital gains tax exemption on Turkish real estate. They are separate rules under separate laws. Selling between years three and five is legally permissible under the citizenship by investment rules but would trigger Turkish capital gains tax on any appreciation. Selling after five years of ownership is exempt from capital gains tax under Turkish income tax law. These timelines do not automatically align.

A Turkish passport provides visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to approximately 110 countries, including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong in Asia; Brazil, Argentina, and most of Latin America and the Caribbean; South Africa and many African countries; and Qatar and other Gulf states. The Turkish passport holder can travel broadly across Asia and the Americas without a prior visa appointment.

Turkey is not a member of the European Union or the Schengen Area. A Turkish passport alone does not entitle the holder to live, work, study, or move freely within Schengen-zone countries. For investors whose primary requirement is access to Europe, a Turkish passport does not substitute for a European residence permit.

One route a Turkish passport opens that most other citizenship by investment programmes do not is the US E-2 Investor Treaty Visa. Turkey has an E-2 treaty with the United States. Turkish nationals can apply for the E-2 visa, which allows an investor and their immediate family to live and work in the United States by investing in a US business. This is a significant advantage for applicants from countries without direct US visa access and is raised frequently in consultations.

Every ranking competitor in the SERP describes Turkey's citizenship route in isolation. The table below places it alongside the four main European programmes on the axes investors actually use to make decisions.

Three questions resolve most shortlisting decisions.

Is citizenship or residence the actual goal? Turkey issues citizenship in roughly 90 days with no residency requirement. Portugal and Greece issue residence permits with a theoretical path to their own citizenship after qualifying years of physical presence, language testing, and integration conditions. If you need a second passport this year, Turkey is the only programme in this table that delivers it on that timeline.

Does EU or Schengen mobility matter? A Turkish passport does not open EU borders. A Portuguese, Greek, Italian, or Maltese residence permit does, to different extents. If the investor's family needs to relocate to a Schengen country, enrol in European schools, or access the European labour market, a residence permit from one of these programmes achieves something a Turkish passport cannot.

What is the realistic total cost and liquidity timeline? The Turkish real estate route ties $400,000 in a tangible asset for three years. The capital is typically recoverable at market on sale; Turkish real estate carries currency risk (lira depreciation affects the USD value of the asset on exit) and liquidity risk in some market segments. European fund and property routes have comparable or higher entry points. Malta's qualifying contributions include a non-recoverable philanthropic donation component. The comparison is never only about the investment threshold; government fees, professional fees, and the expected time to capital recovery all affect the real total cost.

The investment is the principal outlay. Additional government and administrative costs for the main applicant on the real estate route currently run to roughly:

Each dependant (spouse, child under 18) adds their own residence permit fee ($108), health insurance ($150), passport ($165), and citizenship certificate ($25), plus translation and processing costs. For a family of four, the government-fee component per dependant typically comes to $1,300–$1,500; total out-of-pocket for the family unit, excluding the investment itself and professional advisory fees, usually falls in the $15,000–$20,000 range depending on property complexity and family size.

Professional advisory fees are not included in these figures and vary by case complexity and provider.

Turkish citizenship, on its own, creates no Turkish tax obligation. Tax residence in Turkey is determined by physical presence: 183 or more days per year in Turkey makes an individual a Turkish tax resident, subject to tax on worldwide income at progressive rates. A citizenship by investment investor who does not relocate to Turkey will not become a Turkish tax resident and will pay Turkish tax only on any Turkish-source income they generate.

For those who do move to Turkey and establish tax residence, a regime introduced by Law 7582 in June 2026 (Mükerrer Madde 20/D of the Income Tax Law) provides a 20-year exemption from Turkish income tax on foreign-source income for qualifying new tax residents who did not have Turkish tax residence or obligations in Turkey during the three years before their move. This is a separate legal regime from the citizenship programme; it is administered by a different authority (the Revenue Administration, Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı) and a client can hold Turkish citizenship without triggering it, or establish Turkish tax residence without holding citizenship through the programme. Whether this regime applies in a specific situation depends on individual circumstances, and any client considering Turkish tax residence should take advice from a qualified Turkish tax adviser.

Capital gains on Turkish real estate are fully exempt from tax if the property is held for more than five years. Sales between years three and five (after the holding period ends but before the five-year tax threshold) attract capital gains tax on any appreciation.

The Turkish citizenship by investment programme suits investors who want a second passport on a short timeline without a residency commitment, and whose primary mobility needs lie outside the EU. For investors who need Schengen access, a path to EU residence, or a broader European footprint for their family, one of the European programmes is more likely to be the right answer. Many clients hold both a Turkish citizenship and a European residence permit for different purposes; they are not mutually exclusive.

If you are weighing the Turkish route against Portugal's ARI, the Greece Golden Visa, or Malta's MPRP, our team can map the options to your actual mobility, family, and timeline requirements. Reach out to My Golden Visa to start a structured conversation about which route fits your situation.